Inane Gurbuz, Executive Manager EMEA of Azkan Group and professional coach in Turkish Management, shares an excerpt “The Turkish manager” from his book “Doing business in Turkey: a guide to success”
Just like a father with his children, the Turkish manager will reproduce a similar model at work. They tend to treat their teamslike their children, keeping a certain distance and authority, showing a desire to protect them, and expecting their employees not to question their decisions. And in return, they expect great loyalty.
The Turkish manager : a good manager in Turkey is like a second father
The same is true of the subconscious expectations of Turkish
employees, who tend to view their manager as a father figure. It is
a pyramid shaped, hierarchical organization that draws its source from the military model: a father/manager indicates the direction the troops must follow and makes all the decisions. The hierarchical relationship observed in businesses is modelled on this family organization, and a Turkish employee expects their manager to play a paternalistic role.
This is the stereotype of the Turkish manager, who by nature is
often older than their subordinates. Conversely, if the manager does
not take on this role, there will be a sense of deception or rejection
among the team.
The father figurer in Turkey
Small and medium sized companies, particularly in Anatolia, are
often family-run, with the father as the manager and other family
members as key executives. As such, the relationship between
employees is often close. However, as the company is in the hands
of just one person, decision making is much faster and easier. In
order to convince the manager, who is a good“family man”, you need
to emphasize traditional and authentic values: ethics, trust, respect,
and family. And above all, you need to keep in friendly contact
following your meeting! Your relationship should not be limited to
simple negotiations, you should have the intention of keeping up a
long-term relationship.
The rest of this text is available in our book “Doing business in Turkey: a guide to success” . Since 2005, AZKAN Group has acted as a consulting firm for all your development projects in the Turkish market: consulting in implementation, detection of partners, market research, Recruitment Turkey, Payroll and HR Turkey support ….
